ECP to receive objections on delimitation upto April 3

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said the process of accepting objections on delimitation will continue upto April 3; while after expiry of the last date, it will be submitted before the commission.

According to the ECP, it has established a facilitation centre at ECP secretariat regarding initial delimitation of national and provincial assemblies.

It said five teams have been constituted to receive objections pertaining delimitation from all four provinces, federation and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The commission has also launched details of objections on proposed delimitation of the constituencies along with proposed maps by the petitioners on its website.

The commission said this facility will be helpful to all stakeholders understand and get informed about the current status and on-going activities regarding.

Though election authorities have been a subject of criticism in the media on the delimitation process, very few people have approached the ECP so far with written objections against new delimitation of electoral constituencies.

After making the draft delimitations public on March 5, the ECP has set up what it called ‘representations receiving desk’ at its headquarters to receive complaints.

It also constituted five teams, to receive such complaints and fixed April 3 the last date for filing of objections.

Any voter from the constituency can file objection from 9am to 4pm. “Interestingly, a total of 52 objections have been filed by Thursday,” ECP officials said.

Of those 25 objections were filed from Punjab and ICT, 20 from Sindh, seven from K-P. Not a single objection had been received from Balochistan.

Once the process of receiving complaints culminates, the ECP’s additional director general (law) would prepare files for hearing of these cases before the commission.

The ECP would dispose of those cases within a month, before it notifies delimitations on May 3. APP